[Stevie Smith about her poem "Not Waving but Drowning"]
I read about a man getting drowned once
His friends thought he was waving to them from the sea but really, he was drowning
And then I thought that, in a way, it is true of life too
That a lot of people pretend, out of bravery really
That they are very jolly and ordinary sort of chaps
But really they do not feel at home at all in the world
Or able to make friends easily
So then they joke a lot and laugh
And people think they're quite alright and jolly nice too
But sometimes that brave pretense breaks down
And then, like the poor man in this poem, they are lost
Not waving, but drowning